Market Shapes Desires, Fashion, and Imaginary Communities

The market has replaced the family as the economic engine of daily life, now influencing even romantic and sexual preferences. Historically, individuals operated within nuclear family, extended family, and local community, which governed work, unions, construction, welfare, education, media, and policing. Today, the family retains only emotional functions, while the market shapes preferences without prejudice for a fee. Money once passed between patriarchs for sexuality-related matters; now it flows to stylists, makeup artists, gym owners, dietitians, and plastic surgeons who help individuals conform to market-certified beauty ideals. An example is the trimmer, a razor now marketed for full-body hair removal, turning the male body into a self-referential object of desire. Clothing and cosmetics have always signaled community belonging, but communities are increasingly imaginary, transnational, and post-ideological due to global communication. A vegan normcore youth from Nuoro may feel more affinity with a like-minded partner from Düsseldorf than with a local neighbor who cooks lamb and loves Antonio Marras.